The Labor enquirer., 1887-10-08

ment simply exercised this clearly
defined right when he proposed
that suicide be made crime
punishable with death" All the
proposed methods must be heard
and discussed. In this way only
can the best bechosen. Ofneces-
sity, some one individual must be
the first to form and TO express an
opinion in regard to these things.
If you deny him this right, you
cut off forever all hope Of improve
ment. Our government like all
other governments is simply an
invention of men; and it is just as
right and proper to propose some
alteration in it, or to propose a
new and better government in its
stead, as it is to propose some al
teration in a threshing machine, or
to propose a new and better
machine in its stead.
1t is clearly the well-dehned
right, too, of those individuals, no
matter how few they may be, who
favor the abolition of our govern
ment and the formation of what
to them seems likely to be a bet
ter government, to organize them
selves into a political party and to
labor as such for the success of
their proposed changes. In the
exercise of this right they should
not in any way be molested, no
matter how unpopular their views
may be. The views of the first
man who favored the indepence of
the American colonies were very
unpopular, and yet he had per-
feet right to entertain and to ex-
press them, and also, when others
came to entertain the same views,
to organize political party found
ed upon theseviews. In this very
way our nation had her birth. It
was by the exercising of this
same right, too, by a few hated
and prosecuted, at first mostly
women, that the party which
finally abolished chattel slavery in
this country came into existence.
Indeed, it is only by the exercise
of this right that any change for
the better can be made in the gov
ernment or in anything else.
Those who oppose this right are
enemies to all improvement in the
affairs of mankind. By the ad-
hitting of this right peaceable rev
olutions are rendered at all times
and under all circumstances per-
fectly practicable; and these be-
ing always preferable to bloody
revolutions, the atterwould never
occur. On the contrary, by the
denying of this right, peacable
revolutions are rendered always
utterly impracticable and bloody
revolutions often utterly inevitable.
Of necessity all rights are de-
rived from nature; and, like ma
ture herself, they are all essen
tally unchangable and eternal
in their existence. They can in
here only in things of nature,-in
individuals, who spring from ma
ture, never in governments, which
are mere inventions of men and
which are utterly unknown in ma
ture. In themselves governments
are no more capable of possessing
rights or of suffering wrongs than
are threshing-machines, locomo-
tives or any other similar inven-
tions of men. A man can COM
NIT a crime only by invading the
inalienable rights of some person
or some thing capable of suffering
pain or unhappiness from the loss
of those rights. He can no more
commit crime against a govern
ment than he can against a paral-
lei of latitude. In this respect
they are powerless as are thresh-
ing:machines, parallels of lati-
tude, etc. They cannot possible
confer upon another anything not
vested in themselves. And a man
can no more ALLEVIATE his inalien-